PARCC, ANET, PARCC, NWEA, Performance Tasks...... All after spring break. And with NWEA being the mother of all assessments as it speaks to our schools performance level (with regard the SQRP), student promotion (for grades 3,6 and 8) and teacher performance, tension was running high.
Let me back up, because there was some really cool stuff that happened in the last 2 months as well. My birthday was at the beginning of May. My kids knew because it's on the classroom birthday calendar. I started my day with one of my favorite babies, T.I. telling me, "Ms. Ohannes, I'm finna be on my business today because it's your Glo day and I'm not gonna ruin it." Well ok then. As the day progressed, the kids were actually SO conscious of the fact that it was MY GLO DAY that they reminded each other constantly if a fellow student got mouthy. At the end of the day, my Grade level partner, aka best colleague a girl could ask for, handed me a huge pile of cards and said the kids had made them for me in her class. What got me was the messages inside the cards. I was super moved. Regardless of what was going on, for the remainder of the year, I just needed to look at one of these cards and I mustered up the strength for another day.
My students did well on NWEA. My grade level partners and I were pleased with the growth and the % who made their goal which averaged about 95% between the two. We still had a good number of students need to go to summer school, but God willing the majority will pass into 7th grade (Please God at least C.S. and D.F.!)
We took a field trip to the Museum of Science and Industry. It was the entire 6th grade sans 6-7 students who unfortunately could not represent Dvorak in the expected manner. (this would be not smacking girls every 5 minutes, or taking tacks and slapping people on their backs....) We had the 3 teachers and then 2 parents who graciously agreed to go. I had a group of 8 boys. I took the toughest group of boys because I find I bond the most with them. God knows why! It was so amazing listening to their questions and how excited they were about learning. When we got to the airplane, one student, R.M. was so inquisitive the pilot who was there to explain things told him he should seriously consider going into aviation. All in all the kids had an amazing day. They were well-behaved and acted like KIDS are supposed to act. A little goofy and a lot of questions!
As we were leaving the museum, a couple of the girls heard a woman say, "all these damn black kids ruining the museum...." Now, I fortunately did not hear her, nor did I hear about this until we were back on the bus. So I calmly asked the kids why they think the woman might have said that. One student T. A. (straight-As, never in trouble, not that it matters...) said, "we were eating doritos from our pocket and we know we weren't supposed to Ms. Ohannes but she was just racist." I looked at their faces and for a moment wanted to cry. They were so immune to the hate, they only paused on it for a second and went on. God bless their resiliency and ability to know ignorance when faced with it. As for me, well, what I would have said to this woman was:
- First of all, ALL KIDS eat snacks from their pockets, it's not a "black thing";
- Second of all, these babies have as much right to be in this museum as you, in fact, probably more as you are most likely from the suburbs and our city tax dollars pay fees for the museum your ignorant a$$ probably knows nothing about;
- Third, the group of kids I saw push several students out of the way to get to an exhibit was just that, a group of kids...even though it was a group of white suburban kids (which I know from seeing their school shirt) kids will be kids;
- Last, had I heard you I would have calmly requested assistance from a docent or security guard to alert them to the fact you were harassing children and should be banned from the premises.
I was so proud of the way my students handled themselves that it actually made me smile. Shortly after this exchange with the students on the bus I had to secure C.S. in double seat belts but that's another story...
The last week of school was bittersweet and went by so quickly. It was interesting to see how my students reacted to a more lax environment than I had kept all year. Surprisingly, they wanted work and while responding to the film "Freedom Writers" you could have heard a pin drop. Here's a scene of that in action:
I learned SO much this year. I learned that I have ALOT more to learn as well. I believe my top 5 take aways would be the following for a first year teacher:
1. You can never plan enough, nor be prepared enough (Be Prepared)
2. You can always expect to have to re-work those plans (Be Flexible)
3. You must love what you do and your students, MOST of the time (Be Gracious)
4. You must be willing to take feedback from administrators, fellow teachers, and even students and acknowledge when you have made a mistake. You WILL make mistakes (Be Humble)
5. You will be pulled to do things a "certain way", or hear about certain teachers ad nauseam. Stay the course and hold strong to the "you" that got you where you are today (Be Yourself)
I'm going to Peace out for the summer as I dig into thousands of pages of curriculum and prepare myself for another amazing year. Feeling blessed that I get this time to prepare properly for my new babies in the fall!
If you feel so inclined please consider donating to my classroom. Every penny goes to supplies for my students. MsOhannes'sAdopt-A-Classroompage
Thanks!!
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